Tony Medina is the Master of Retro Red Carpet Hairstyles

If you’re a fan of retro glamour and vintage hairstyling, you’re already familiar with Tony Medina, a.k.a. His Vintage Touch on Instagram. The king of Old Hollywood hair has been quietly collecting Instagram fans while sculpting his signature waves on pinup models, rockabilly singers, and, naturally, Dita Von Teese. R&B singer Andra Day’s epic flower-studded Motown bouffant at the Grammys? All him. “If there’s a hairstyle your grandma would have loved, Andra will love it, too,” Medina says. “Her thing is huge ’60s bouffants and beehives, so we do a lot of back combing and teasing,” he says. “Dita likes more of a pageboy look, curled in at the bottom.” Apparently, the burlesque star has her hair trained as well as her waist: “She's styled it like that for years, so it just falls into place once I start brushing it. I freeze it with hairspray, and she’s off.”

Hair has always been his thing. “When I was 10 or 11 years old, all the other boys wanted to play sports and video games, and I was into hair,” says Medina, who cites Gwen Stefani as an early influence. “I was obsessed with her hair. She wore a lot of 1940's-inspired styles at the time.” So he did what any tween hairstylist would do. He recruited his sisters as models.

Victory rolls, a Gwen Stefani staple, was one of the earliest styles he mastered. “I did that style for two years until I perfected it, which means my poor little sister went to elementary school every single day in victory rolls,” he says. Soon after, he discovered the Betty Grable movie, Pin Up Girl. “I rented it from the library and never gave it back, because I couldn't stop practicing every hairstyle from the movie."

Betty Grable in Pin Up Girl

John Kobal Foundation

“When I was 17, I saw Eleanor Parker in Scaramouche and it was all over. That's all I wanted to do ever again. I thought it was the most beautiful, sexy, romantic hair I'd ever seen in my life.”

Eleanor Parker in Scaramouche

Getty Images

And here, Medina breaks down how to get his signature, retro red-carpet hair in five easy steps.

1. Start with a solid roller set. “Every one of my hairstyles starts off the same way — with super tight pin curls all over the head. I sometimes use a curling wand on clients because I have time constraints, but at home, you can do a wet set or use hot rollers. The key is letting the curls cool completely to set.” (If you’re impatient, speed things up with the blow dryer’s cool shot button.)

2. Brush the bejeezus out of it. After creating a headful of Shirley Temple ringlets, it’s time to brush through the hair. (Medina uses his trusty Mason Pearson paddle brush.) “Brush all the way through the curls until your hair looks looks frizzy and fluffy,” he says.

3. Don’t stop. Brush through the fear. This is where it all goes wrong — people panic and hold back. “They're scared of the middle part of the process, when the hair gets that cotton candy-ish texture,” he says, “but that’s my favorite part. That puffiness keeps the hair nice and voluminous. It’s the boning that helps reinforce the style.” Mist the whole head with Kenra Volume Spray 25. “It’s my favorite product of all time,” he says. “It gets really firm, but if you brush through, it doesn't go white and flaky.”

4. Sculpt it and glaze it. Now that the silhouette is in place, “follow the curl pattern to smooth out only the surface layer of the hair with a small, fine-toothed comb,” he says. With a pea-sized amount of Kenra Platinum Working Wax on his fingertips, he polishes any flyaways or baby hairs for a clean part and hairline. Then he uses Suavecita Grooming Spray for a boost of glossiness and additional hold. “I mist it a little bit around the hair, then, with my cupped palm, I'll trace over the hair to smooth and shape the curl,” he says. “It's very hands on. A lot of my styling is done with my fingers.”

Advertisement

5. Don’t let anyone near it. Sure, this hair might look soft and touchable, but “it’s all an illusion,” he says. “This is occasion hair, red-carpet hair, photo-shoot hair.” In other words — it won’t budge for hours, but don’t try to run your fingers through it. Medina is known for sending clients off with last-minute instructions: “I tucked the hair behind one ear, so that's the side you hug and greet people with!” (It’s also the side you sleep on, should you want to revive the style the next day. Remember, grandma used to make a roller-set last all week with a little mindfulness and a silk headscarf.)